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Brand new to the club, just built my little demo board. — Parallax Forums

Brand new to the club, just built my little demo board.

GilesGoatGilesGoat Posts: 26
edited 2014-12-10 02:55 in General Discussion
Hi,

just wanted to say "Hi", I'm new to the Propeller club.

Time ago I heard about this CPU, some people were talking, but none of the friends I know that talked about it got one .. so a while ago I decided "want one of those chips too let's see".

Bought one but had not much time to have a look ( I'm super busy ) .. until yesterday when "right I want to see something about this thing" ..

So using all the bits and pieces I could have found around ( had a hard time in finding a BC327, found one in an old TV ) and approximating some components with others I kinda replicated the "demo board" and just had some of the VGA demos running .. I am .. stunned at the capabilities of this CPU.

So here in the links a couple of pics if I want to see it, it's been built "quick with all the stuff I had around", unfortunately I miss the EEPROM but I'll get one at some point, it works so far anyway.

The "demo board" ( sitting on my crate where I have all my other exps, long story ) : http://www.gilesgoat.com/YakLog/Propeller1.jpg

The front stuff with the connectors ( have not connected the display yet ) : http://www.gilesgoat.com/YakLog/Propeller2.jpg

The VGA text demo running ( I hope got the colours right ) : http://www.gilesgoat.com/YakLog/Propeller3.jpg

So now at least I have "something I can play with" looking forward to learn something about SPIN / Propeller ASM and such :) I have in mind quite a few things ( probably already done ) I'd like to try to make with this CPU ( VT100 emulator anyone ? :) )

Ah yes .. maybe a "mini quick intro" .. "I do all this just for fun", love electronics, been into that since I was 12 years old .. like VHDL as well .. I love to build small computers using old/arcane/new/strange CPUs :)

Seeyou around.

Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-12-06 14:23
    Welcome GilesGoat! Glad to hear you're up & running. Have fun and share your questions and discoveries here, it's a very friendly forum. Best,

    Erco
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-12-06 15:13
    Welcome to the forum.

    I love the chassis !

    We are here to help with problems and questions.
  • KMyersKMyers Posts: 433
    edited 2014-12-06 15:21
    Great job I also love the card cage!

    Welcome to the forums...
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2014-12-06 15:47
    Welcome and great to see you up and running.
    Note the Verilog has been released for the prop chip - see the forum thread for this.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2014-12-06 21:08
    You've got some nice looking stuff sitting around your place. :)

    The Prop still seems pretty magical to me. It does so many things at once and does each one so well. Code goes together so quickly, too, and code re-usability is unmatched.
  • GilesGoatGilesGoat Posts: 26
    edited 2014-12-07 05:49
    Hi guys, thanks for all the welcome :)

    As I said "I just started yesterday" I still have to study a bit better how this Propeller works and what it can do, my "first idea" when I saw all this is "wow, this would be very good for making an almost 1 chip only VT emualtor or such" :)

    I mean "PS/2 KB one side, VGA the other, serial port .. job done" :)

    I am fond of building up little computer systems "for various CPUs" .. made a few Z80 CP/M system, my last one is this one :

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/FirstRunSBCZ80.jpg

    That was an 'attempt to make a single board computer' that KINDA failed in the sense I have not managed to fit ALL I really wanted in one single board .. so I already been working 'on a second board' with "the rest" ..

    This was a pic while testing :

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/FirstRunSBCZ80_2.jpg

    Another thing I've done a while ago, if anyone is interested for "curiosity" was a small system around a Signetics 2650 CPU

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/signeticsboard.jpg

    And a document I made about it a while ago : http://www.gilesgoat.com/YakLog/sg2650_Sbc.pdf

    .. yes I am one of those "LaTEX maniacs" :">

    I also "doodle a little" with some INMOS transputers and once tried to make "as a challenge" a "poor man VGA controller for Z80" also was part of my VHDL learning experience.

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/VideoCard1.jpg

    That was attached to my "old" Z80 system .. which is "a mess of wires" ..

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/VideoCard2.jpg

    Giles has a little lamb : http://www.gilesgoat.com/Yak/VideoCard3.jpg

    That was running something "stupid" like 160x100 or sorta, but then I managed to optimize/understand better the stuff and I manage to have the same HW going 320x200

    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Z80Project/Video320_1.jpg
    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Z80Project/Video320_2.jpg
    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Z80Project/Video320_3.jpg
    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Z80Project/Video320_4.jpg
    http://www.gilesgoat.com/Z80Project/Video320_5.jpg

    Currently I am working on an 'extension board' ( actually finished, in the process of manufacturing it ) for that Z80 SBC, it has a WIZ5100 module, an SD card, and a few other things.

    I really don't know Verilog .. "I am SO fond of VHDL" .. however at the moment I just want to learn how to use the Parallax :)

    But I certainly have quite a few ideas about what I'd like to do with it :)

    Ah that crate .. bought it more than 15 years ago .. for long time it's been sitting doing nothing until I said "time to make it work" ..

    It's always like this with me .. it's all a matter I can find "the right time" to do the things, problem is I am already almost 20/24 in this same room in front of a PC if not coding on a thing, coding on another :):):)
  • ColeyColey Posts: 1,110
    edited 2014-12-07 09:14
    Hmmm, with a name like GilesGoat and YAK in the file path you must have some affiliation to Llamasoft and Jeff Minter?

    Anyway, Greetings, or should that be Bleatings? ;-)

    Welcome to the forum, always nice to see new Prop users especially ones from the UK.

    Regards,

    Coley
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2014-12-07 10:30
    Hi GilesCoat,

    Welcome to the forums :D and the propeller, you won't regret your decision to play on it it's awesome!

    Cheers,
    Jim.
  • GilesGoatGilesGoat Posts: 26
    edited 2014-12-07 14:29
    Coley wrote: »
    Hmmm, with a name like GilesGoat and YAK in the file path you must have some affiliation to Llamasoft and Jeff Minter?

    Anyway, Greetings, or should that be Bleatings? ;-)

    Welcome to the forum, always nice to see new Prop users especially ones from the UK.

    Regards,

    Coley

    Well .. yes .. I am Giles of Llamasoft ..

    I always found the Propeller "intriguing" since first time I read something about it :) I think it's a CPU that deserves attention/understanding.

    Cheers,

    Giles.
  • GilesGoatGilesGoat Posts: 26
    edited 2014-12-10 02:55
    Yesterday I spent a 40 mins or so studying the full duxplex serial driver to understand how it works ... interesting the "trick" of "jmpret" to implement a sort of 'task switching', I can see also the use of the global counter fundamental to make such kind of things work.

    Now trying to study the VGA driver source, I want to modify it so to get 720x400 res and see if I can get at first a 45x25 display .. then I have some ideas about how to turn it into 80x25.
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